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Re: How to clean large area of Pavers

A product that I have used for literally 30 years is JOMAX. A quart of Jomax is combined with 3 quarts of bleach and 4 gallons of water to make 5 gallons of solution. It is a detergent, a bleach activator and mildicide. When used, black mildew and green algae will disappear before your eyes. It is relatively mild. It has never damaged surrounding plants etc. when I have used it. I use this product evey spring to clean the gunk off my exposed aggragate patio here in Portland where algae is the State Plant I simply flush the solution away with a brisk power washing.

Another product which might be useful is Behr's All In One Deck Cleaner. This is basically oxalic acid with enzymes as cleaners. It is an excellant concrete cleaner. I discovered this by accident, having spilled the solution on my driveway while using it to clean my cedar fencing. The spilled on area looked like new! So I just did the rest of the driveway. It also did a great job of removing the rust spots from the sidewalk where I stupidly did not get the iron containing fertilizer pellets off the walkway.

After a thorough cleaning, I don't know why the pavers could not be treated with concrete stain to return some of the color.

Re: How to clean large area of Pavers

Originally Posted by drewp

I was thinking that there would be some type of a machine/steamer/buffer similar to what you see them using on a roof to clean shingles/remove moss, etc.

The only thing in that vein I can think of would be along the lines of an orbital floor polisher with a scrub brush base plate. You know the kind that the janitor used to polish the floors at your school when you were a kid.

Good luck and let us know what you find and how things work out.

I suffer from CDO ... Its like OCD, but in alphabetical order, LIKE IT SHOULD BE!!!

Re: How to clean large area of Pavers

Yep, that's exactly what I was thinking. I've rented those orbital polishers before with a scouring disc. I'm just not to sure how well it would "float" over a rough surface like pavers. This projects going to be a couple of weeks down the road. I will update on how I made out.

Re: How to clean large area of Pavers

I know you want to run a sander-polisher over the stones, but remember this: the pavers have a convex finish - meaning, the center of the paver is higher than the perimeters. What does it mean? it means that the sander may miss some of the low points, and these point are in need of cleaning or bleaching the most.

Re: How to clean large area of Pavers

Originally Posted by drewp

Yep, that's exactly what I was thinking. I've rented those orbital polishers before with a scouring disc. I'm just not to sure how well it would "float" over a rough surface like pavers. This projects going to be a couple of weeks down the road. I will update on how I made out.

I recall seeing brush attachments for them in addition to the "scrubby" pads. A brush is going to work much better than a scrubby pad surface.

I suffer from CDO ... Its like OCD, but in alphabetical order, LIKE IT SHOULD BE!!!

Re: How to clean large area of Pavers

Use bleach, don't add water.
Use a gallon size spray pump, spray on the affected area. Don't soak the shingles and don't let the bleach run.
One gallon (about a dollar) will treat a square (100sf). Can you handle that?
Wait 20 minutes and say "that was easy". Don't rinse.
A good project for this weekend.